When We Were Children
by JustRelax
Summary: Written for Kirsteena for the Artina ficathon.  Sometimes you forget what it was like to be young and it's a shame because when you have a lot more fun when you're young.


A/N: My Artina Ficathon piece, written for **Kirsteena**.

Prompt: Chess, food, would love to see some Kurt/Mercedes/Artie/Tina friendship

Queue fluffy goodness!

I end up focusing on the friendship a lot more than I originally intended to and the ending is a little weird but I hope you enjoy it anyway.

Oh and just so you know, I consider ice cream food.

* * *

**When We Were Children**

Tina was never a huge fan of summer. Oh, she liked the idea of it of course, the whole no school, relaxing in the sun, having fun thing was very appealing but for some reason it never really turned out that way. Summers for her were always just hot, sticky and boring. She spent most of them lazying around doing nothing and it was all ridiculously pathetic. Thankfully, this summer was a little better. It was still hot, it was still sticky, and it was still boring but at least she wasn't hot sticky and bored all alone. No, she had friends now, which meant they could all be bored together.

Great.

She was relaxing on the couch in Artie's living room with Mercedes' feet propped in her lap when she finally announced what everyone else had been thinking for the last hour and a half.

"I'm bored."

She heard Kurt sigh right next to her as she leaned her head back to look at the ceiling. Okay, so this summer was still pathetic but at least she knows she wasn't the only one to think so.

"What do you want to do?" Artie asked, he looked like he was about to fall asleep. It was definitely a lazy day.

"I don't know." The three voices chorused together

Artie looked simultaneously amused and frustrated as he groaned, "That's helpful."

There was a brief pause in conversation before Mercedes broke it again. "Okay seriously guys, I'm bored, what do you want to do?"

Tina thought it over in her head, nothing really seemed appealing to her. It was one of those, so bored you really don't want to do anything but complain about being bored days. She could tell the others felt the same way, there was virtually no conversation between the four of them today, no gossip, no laughing, no anything, just sitting in Artie's living room silently complaining.

"How about a board game?" Artie suggested.

Mercedes reached behind her and threw the couch cushion she had been using at him, showing Artie exactly how she felt about that idea. It smacked him in the face. Tina snorted and Artie threw the girls a dark look.

"I'm serious!" He said, "When was the last time you guys played a board game?"

"Why do I feel like I'm walking into the plot of Jumanji?" Kurt asked rolling his eyes at Artie.

"That movie freaked me out as a kid." Tina stated, eyes returning to the ceiling.

"Fine." Artie huffed, "Any better ideas?"

He was met by silence, and three blank stares. A triumphant grin spread across his face, "I'll get the games."

He returned shortly with a pile of boxes on his lap. He placed them each down carefully on the coffee table as he listed them off. "Monopoly, Risk, Chess, and Clue."

Tina frowned, she had no interest in playing any of these games. Monopoly could go on forever, she didn't know how to play Risk, she was terrible at Chess, and she didn't like Clue very much.

"I'm not moving." Mercedes stated, readjusting herself next to Tina.

Tina shrugged, "If Mercedes isn't moving, I can't move." she gestured to the feet on her lap.

Artie rolled his eyes and muttered, "Girls," before turning to Kurt, a hopeful expression plastered his face.

Kurt sighed, slowly rose from his seat, brushed off his pants (who still wears pants in July? Kurt Hummel does.) and walked over to Artie.

"One quick game of Chess." He said, sitting on the floor.

Artie beamed, the chess pieces scattered along the board as he dumped them out, the white queen rolled to the floor. "Three."

"Two." Kurt said, picking up the queen and setting it in its place.

Artie agreed and the two played on. Tina watched the boys curiously, amused by how relaxed Kurt was and how serious Artie seemed to be. The first few turns were uneventful, but then Kurt did a surprising takeover of Artie's queen and Artie was screwed, screwed to the point where even Tina could see it. He ended beating Artie in the first game. Artie took this as a challenge and destroyed Kurt the second time around. He then succeeded in wrangling another game out of Kurt. They stalemated. Right as they were setting up the fourth game, Mercedes who had been silent until then exclaimed, "Alright, that's enough! Watching you guys play chess is actually more boring than not doing anything!" She turn towards Tina, "Right Tina?"

Tina shrugged, she had actually been enjoying the game but if Mercedes had a better idea, well, she definitely was all up for it.

"We are not having the 'I'm bored, what do you want to do' conversation again." Artie said firmly.

Mercedes shot Artie a glare before responding with a "As a matter of fact, I have an idea,"

This peaked the interest of everyone, and their friend looked overly smug as she replied, "We could go outside."

"Mercedes, it's like a hundred and five degrees out there and I sunburn easily!" Kurt cried out.

"Yeah Mercedes, I don't think that's a very good idea." Tina said frowning, she didn't sunburn like Kurt did (Score one for the Asian!) but the air conditioning at her house was currently being fixed and the whole point of coming to Artie's house was to laze around in his cool home.

There was a silence as Artie nodded in agreement before Mercedes broke it again.

"Ice cream?"

Everyone paused for half a second, considering Mercedes' suggestion.

"I could go for some ice cream." Tina mused

"Just don't tell coach Sylvester." Kurt chimed

"Let's roll" Artie joked

Three eyes rolled in his direction before they set out towards the door.

The door opened and a large gust of warm air poured in the house. The shock of the heat rippled down her body and Tina actually shivered at the change in temperature, thank god she decided to ditch the black today, opting instead for a white cami and some denim shorts. She could see the heatwaves dance along the Abrams' front lawn. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea.

"Man I wish I drove today." Mercedes groaned.

Tina agreed, she had biked to Artie's that morning. It was warm out but not hot and she figured that taking her rusty old bike for a day couldn't hurt.

She was an idiot.

"Don't look at me, I walked, my dad took away my car." Kurt said shaking his head solemnly

"Again?" Tina said, surprised, he'd just gotten it back, and he loved that thing, it was his baby. "What'd you do?"

Kurt smirked and stepped outside, pulling his sunglasses over his eyes. "Let's just say Finn isn't too happy with me right now."

"Uh oh. What'd you do?" Artie voiced, echoing Tina whilst he rolled out the door.

"Nothing, it was an accident, I swear."

It was Mercedes' turn, "Kurt, what did you do?"

The boy in question turned towards his best friend and shifted his weight towards his left leg, crossing his arms in the process. "Finn has this horrible habit of leaving his dirty laundry on the floor so I thought I'd be a good friend a pick it up for him."

"Kurt," All three of them said at the same time, "What did you do?"

"I did his laundry." Kurt said, waving a hand casually. He clearly enjoyed stringing his friends along. Tina huffed in annoyance as Kurt turned and began to walk away towards the direction of the ice cream shop. "And I may have accidentally slipped a red scarf in with his whites."

Mercedes' cackle echoed across the empty street, no one else dared to venture out in the heat like this. Tina's laugh was only slightly more subdued and Artie just smirked whilst Kurt turned around and gave them all an evil grin.

Finn Hudson and pink underwear, what a sight that would be.

"Hell hath no fury like a Kurt scorned." Artie quipped, which sent Tina into another fit of giggles. He beamed up at her and Tina's hand finds a way to his shoulder as he pushed himself along next to her.

Mercedes quickened her pace to catch up Kurt and the two link arms as they fall into step with each other.

Tina and Artie stroll along silently, it's too hot to talk and the journey to the shop seemed to take forever but the two of them felt comfortable together. Tina's mom always said that the true test in a relationship is the ability to just stay in a comfortable silence with each other. As she glanced over at Artie she thinks that they've definitely passed that test. Artie just gets her in a way no one else can and the thought makes her grin broadly to herself. It was silly, it was naive, it was oh-so-sixteen, but Tina can't stop smiling and that's all that really matters.

They're halfway to the shop when Mercedes abruptly stops walking only to drag Kurt into a party store. Tina and Artie shared a glance and followed the pair into the shop, slightly confused and more than a little amused.

Mercedes was a genius.

The air conditioned store was their salvation. Tina had never been more happy to be in this store before. Literally, this store was kind of terrible. The employees were always a little off and the merchandise wasn't impressive at all. Still, it had air conditioning, and that kind of made it better than going home.

Kurt was grimacing at one of the cardboard cutouts of Darth Vader when Artie poked Tina on her side. She jumped in surprise, and turned to scold him only to find that her boyfriend was wearing a silly pair of slinky-eye glasses and a wig. She gave his head a playful push as she rolled her eyes smiling.

"Hey guys" Artie said in a nasally voice, Mercedes and Kurt glanced over, eyebrows raised, "look what I can do." Artie bobbed his head back and forth sending the slinky-eyes in all direction. They all laugh when it hits him on the forehead.

Mercedes reached into a random basket at the front of an isle where they put the clearance stuff and finds a pair of "2002" new year's glasses and a weird white feathery scarf, putting them both on and strutting down the isle like a runway model.

"We should have a fashion show." Mercedes joked, grabbing a neon green birthday cone hat and plopping it right on Kurt's head.

Tina grinned, "I'll take the pictures!"

"Um, no, I do not want these on Facebook where the world can see them." Kurt said, removing the hat from his head.

"Please? Come on Kurt, It'll be fun, and I won't post them on Facebook I swear." She will, later, and he won't be able to do anything about it.

"No."

"Please?"

Artie finally cuts in, "Oh come on Kurt, we're bored, it's hot out, and we've got nothing to do, let the girl take a few pictures, it'll kill some time."

Kurt looked at all three of them, Mercedes had crossed her arms, Artie was smiling encouragingly and Tina was giving him the puppy dog eyes. Kurt sighed heavily, "Fine, but I won't like it."

"YES!" Tina shouts in celebration throwing her hands in the air and leaning down to kiss Artie on the cheek before running off into one of the isles to grab random costume pieces.

In the hour and a half before they were kicked out of the store, Tina managed to convince Artie to put on a Santa beard, elf ears (He insisted that they'd be referred to as Vulcan ears), a top hat and rubber gloves. Mercedes sported her AmericanFlag/Stripper/Cop combo proudly and Kurt, in a hilarious scenario that involved Artie's wheelchair, Mercedes' whip thing, and Tina's flip flops was forcibly dressed up as a weird garden gnomelike creature with a straw cowboy hat, a fake 1980's porn star mustache (they took it out of the package but the guy behind the counter was so high he didn't even know they were there), zombie gloves and a purple and pink feather boa.

Tina was the Belle of the ball, displaying an oddly misplaced set of hooker heels, an eyepatch, pink fairy wings, a toy snake draped across her shoulders, and a sash that read "Little Miss Ohio". Her three friends decided that she would be the perfect subject for their little dress up game and proceeded to pile every single item they could find on her. All of which came tumbling off of her when they all had a mini dance party to Earth Wind and Fire's "Let's Groove" but not before a group photo which Tina immediately set as her profile picture on Facebook.

The only reason she was still alive was because Kurt didn't have a Facebook app on his phone.

It was slightly cooler when the man behind the counter finally realized they were there and removed them from the store, and by slightly Tina means half a degree. The four of them were tired, slightly delirious, and hot, but that didn't stop them from belting out "Don't Stop Believing" to the ghost town before them.

Tina was feeling unusually giddy, their little adventure in the party store had sparked something in her, it was like she unlocked an energy she didn't know she had. The dormant beast that resided in her had come alive and Tina felt like all her reservations were gone. She started bouncing, the sun was pounding on her back, and the walking had worn her out but she was still jumping and skipping, and she didn't know why.

"Girl, you okay?" Mercedes sounded concerned.

"I'm great!" She replied happily, jumping up in an attempt to touch a tree branch. She was short a foot but her disappointment rolled off her pretty easily.

There's part of Tina, the rational part that seemed to have been transferred into the giddy monster's cage, that told Tina that she was lucky there was no one else around, because she knew that if there was, Tina would look back on this moment and feel unbelievably embarrassed, but right now, that didn't matter.

"Why are you so hyper?" It was Mama bear Mercedes again, still concerned for her friend's mental state. Tina didn't really blame her.

"I'm not hyper Mercedes,"

Artie rolled his eyes and sarcastically mumbled "Sure you aren't..."

She ignored this, "I'm happy, there's a difference."

And she was, it was a nice summer day, despite the fact that it was ridiculously hot, and she was having fun with her friends, what more could she ask for?

Still high off of life, or maybe it was the smell of pot that had overtaken the party store they'd been in earlier, Tina linked an arm around Kurt's and dragged him down the street, skipping, which forced the boy to skip along too. About halfway down the street, a tune pops in her head and there's really nothing she can do but sing it out loud. "We're off to see the wizard! The wonderful wizard of Oz!" She remembered doing this with her parents when she was young, skipping along as they took their long strides alongside her.

Kurt joined in, to the surprise of everyone, and the two skipped all the way to the end, voices slightly off-key on the account that they really didn't care and no one else was around to laugh at them but the gaping Mercedes and Artie a few feet behind them. They halt as they arrived at the crosswalk, Tina out of breath, Kurt seemingly unfazed, must be all the dancing and Cheerios practices, and then they're both guffawing. Tina feels herself clutch onto Kurt to keep from falling, and she's not entirely sure why she's laughing. But that doesn't matter because it felt good to be laughing at all. Especially at something so ridiculously silly.

Artie and Mercedes caught up to them and Artie grabbed both of Tina's wrists in an attempt to still her. It works because Tina immediately freezes.

"Tina," He says soothingly, "Calm down." He's smiling at her and his eyes tell her that he's extremely amused at her antics. Her focus seemed to laser itself to Artie and only Artie. Artie's palms were hot and sweaty and sticky as he moved to grip hers,

"Don't worry," He sounded serious but his face was still betraying his words, "We're almost there, we'll get you some sustenance and everything will be okay." He was clearly joking, but he had said it in a way that sounded so sincere and so honest that it would have been difficult to tell the difference had she not been looking at him.

And then she started to giggle again, which made Artie laugh, and Kurt, who had never really stop laughing at all, laugh even harder, but it was Mercedes that thundered over all three of them.

Tina wondered what they all looked like to everyone else, if anyone else was actually around to see them. They weren't your normal average teenagers in Lima, no, whilst everyone else was at the pool or at some sort of camp, they were just four friends that might have spent a little too much time in the party store.

The bell above the ice cream shop door dinged as the four teens entered. The place was empty, save for an older looking man wiping down the table. This shop had been abandoned by most of the citizens in Lima in favor for the newly built Dairy Queen a few blocks over. It was a nice little shop that had been there for as long as Tina could remember and It'd been a while since she'd pop by for a visit, most of her ice cream shopping was done at the grocery store. It's really a shame though, this place had a lot of history.

The man smiled and waved at them, returning to the other side of the counter. Kurt went and sat at a booth in the corner of the shop, Mercedes looked at the pictures on the wall full of valued customers and important events while Tina and Artie approached the glass box full of ice cream flavors.

"So, cookies and cream in a waffle cone for you?" Artie asked, looking up at Tina, he knew her all too well.

"Yeah but you don't have to buy any for me, I brought my own money." She said reaching for the money she hid in her back pocket.

Artie stopped her, "But I want to Tee."

Tina smiled at him, he was really sweet and she could tell he meant it, but still...

"How about this, I'll let you buy mine, if I can buy yours."

"Tina-" Artie attempted to protest but he was cut off by a booming

"OH MY GOD!"

The couple's heads immediately snap over to the source of the commotion. It came from Mercedes who was standing by the photos and gaping at one.

They moved towards their friend, Kurt joining them halfway.

"What is it Mercedes?" Kurt asked.

"Is that you?"

Tina leaned over Mercedes' shoulder to look at what she was pointing at. It was a picture of a boy, no more than six or seven, holding a spoon over his head.

"No." Kurt denied.

Artie turned to look at the picture, then at Kurt, and then the picture again. "I don't know man, it does look like you."

Kurt rolled his eyes, "That's not me." He stated simply, and then he pointed to a picture two pictures below that one, "That's me." He tapped it twice before retracting his hand

It was a mini Kurt Hummel, ice cream beard dripping over his face, smiling at the camera as he dipped his spoon into a huge bowl of ice cream built for a whole table of people to share.

"Awwww, Kurt, you were so cute." Tina cooed, observing the photo even more. There were several other kids at the table, none of which resembled any of the people she knew.

"You were so chubby." Artie commented, poking his side.

"I was not!" Kurt cried incredulously, moving away from Artie.

"You kind of were." Mercedes said, backing up Artie.

He grinned smugly at Kurt.

"I was not chubby!"

"Kurt, it's normal at that age, and besides you're fit now." Tina reassured him.

Kurt huffed in annoyance and crossed his arms.

"Dude, you had an ice cream beard, that is so awesome." Artie said, pointing to the mess on the young Kurt's face

"I just want to pinch your cheeks." Mercedes actually did pinch his cheeks, Kurt attempted to bat her hands away unsuccessfully.

Tina laughed, "What are you eating? That thing is huge!"

"That's what she said." Artie stated,

Three collective groans and a slap in the back of the head by his girlfriend followed.

"Very mature Arthur." Kurt said, smirking as Artie glared at him, "That's the family sundae."

"We should just get one of those."

And it was settled, they knew what they wanted to order. Shortly after that, the group of four found themselves settled into a booth, Mercedes and Kurt on one side, Tina on the other and Artie on the edge, digging into a ridiculously large bowl of ice cream.

"This is a lot more than I remembered." Kurt said, licking the whip cream off of his spoon.

They ate in a relative silence for a while, the ice cream was like their own little piece of heaven. The hot day, combined with the skipping, singing and dancing from earlier, had made the ice cream much more enjoyable than it would have been. Tina had even convinced them to throw in a few scoops of cookies and cream into their sundae. She dug in happily, "Mmmm"

"So Kurt," Artie said in between bites, "Are you going to construct a beard this time?"

Kurt frowned, unamused and didn't answer.

Mercedes leaned back, winked at Tina, before scooping up a large spoonful. "Well that's a damn shame." She said, looking at Kurt.

Kurt looked over at his friend, eyes wide as he realized what she was going to do.

"Mercedes, no, don't you dare, Mercedes..."

And with that, the diva began to smear a combination of ice cream, whip cream, and chocolate sauce all over Kurt's face, finishing off her creation by plopping a cherry right on the top of his head.

The boy's jaw dropped, Tina froze, spoonful of ice cream halfway to her mouth. She could hear Artie laughing beside her, but she was too busy being in awe of Mercedes to function. That girl had guts, she's pretty sure that Kurt will retaliate soon.

And retaliate he did. Kurt dumped a spoonful of ice cream right on top of Mercedes' head.

Mercedes' own jaw dropped before another evil grin spread across her face.

Tina leaned her body back, trying to get as far away as she could trapped in the booth. She didn't want to get in the line of fire.

Mercedes flicked her spoon towards Kurt but it missed and smacked Artie's glasses instead. He grinned before digging into the ice cream with his hands and threw it back.

So started the great ice cream war of 2010. The employee behind the counter didn't seem to mind the teens making a mess of themselves because most of the ice cream ended up on each other as opposed to the floor.

Tina had skillfully avoided the ice cream until Artie decided it would be a good idea to dump a large amount down the front side of her shirt. She gasped as the icey treat rolled down her chest and quickly joined the battle.

There was a lot of shrieking from the girls and a lot of laughing from the boys but Tina couldn't really register any of it because the ice cream was moving too fast and if she didn't want to get hit she should really duck. She's also 90% sure she got Mercedes good at the side of her neck and now the girl was after her.

The bowl was emptied pretty quickly, leaving only the melted pool of vanilla and chocolate at the bottom. Tina panted and let out a happy sigh, leaning back against the booth when they all declared a ceasefire.

"It's kind of a shame we wasted all that ice cream." Kurt said as he was cleaning himself off,

"Wasted?" Mercedes' head turned towards Kurt, "That was so not a waste." she chuckled

Tina licked her fingers, which was completely covered in ice cream before an idea occurred to her. She casually reached for the bowl at the center of the table, no one paid her any attention because they were too busy cleaning themselves off and then proceeded to dump it all on top of Artie's bowed head.

Revenge was sweet.

Mercedes cackled and Kurt gave Tina a high five.

Artie shot Tina an incredulous look and Tina smiled innocently, licking the rest of the ice cream off of her thumb, as if she didn't actually just dump an entire thing of melted ice cream on her boyfriend's head.

Artie unexpectedly grabbed her arm, tugged her over towards him and tickled her side with his free arm. She attempted to wrangle away from his grip but it didn't work.

"A-Artie" she cried out laughing in between breaths, "Stop! I'm sorry!"

"What's the magic word?" he said, mercilessly continuing his brand of torture, there was no more ice cream, this was the only ammunition he had left.

"Please stop Artie! Please!"

"Well since you asked so nicely."

And he stilled his hands, but he didn't leg go of her arm, instead he slid his hand down to hers and entwined them. Tina grinned at him, sliding closer to her tormentor, and then, in one swift motion, boldly licked the ice cream off the side of his face.

Artie was surprised, Mercedes and Kurt were thoroughly disgusted.

"Ew." Kurt stated simply, looking away from them and returning to his clean up.

"Tina, that was nasty." Mercedes chuckled good naturedly.

The four of them burst out laughing once again.

"Alright, alright" Artie said once they've all calmed down enough to listen. Tina let out a few last giggles as she attempted to still herself. "Let's go back to my house and clean off."

Maybe it was the after effects of the ice cream war but the walk back to Artie's had been cooler and faster than when they were traveling in the opposite direction. Before she knew it, Tina found herself in the Abrams backyard as Artie moved towards the shed on the other side of the yard to gather something. He had refused to tell them what he was up to and Mercedes and Kurt were cleaning themselves up in the bathrooms. Tina had been too lazy to move and plopped herself right on the grass.

The sun was still beating down on her and the melted ice cream that dried on her skin was starting to leave behind a sticky residue but she didn't really care. She was tired and she didn't feel like making the trek back into the house. The day had been good. She closed her eyes and relaxed into the grass as she waited for her friends to come back.

Artie had been first, rolling up to her and throwing the things he'd gathered haphazardly onto the ground next to him, before leaning over in his chair so that his face had provided enough shade for Tina's head. She opened her eyes.

"Hey," She said tiredly, rolling herself over and propping herself up on her elbows. "What's all this stuff for?"

Artie had gathered a whole bunch of toys. Jump ropes, hula hoops, balls of every color, water guns and even a shovel.

"Well, I thought, since we've all been in a weird childish mood, we'd finish it off by doing things we haven't done since we were kids."

It was a good idea. Tina couldn't even remember the last time she picked up a jump rope or even seen a hula hoop.

"Wait..." she trailed off, realizing something "Artie, was this your plan all along?"

He grinned innocently at her, and Tina thought back to the events of that day. It had been Artie who first put on something silly at the party store and it'd been Artie that inspire Mercedes to start the ice cream war with a comment.

"You evil mastermind!" She laughed, jumping up from the ground.

"I don't know what you're talking about." He replied feigning innocence.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about." Tina slid into his lap, snaking her arms around his neck which was still sticky from the combination of sweat and dried ice cream. His arms wrapped around her sides.

"Hmmm, no, no I don't really think I do." He said shaking his head.

Tina leaned into him, resting her head on his shoulder. Their two bodies were in such close proximity made it much hotter than it already was, but Tina found that she didn't mind the heat so much when it came from him.

"Thanks," She said softly.

"What for?"

"This, I haven't had that much fun in a long time."

"Anytime Tee, I just want you to be happy."

"I am happy."

He smiled down at her, and pulled her into a sweet soft kiss that she deepened. Her hands raked his hair and his slid down her waist to rest on her hips.

And then she felt something cold powerful and extremely wet pound on her back. The two of them broke apart.

"Hey lovebirds!" Kurt shouted at them from across the yard, hose in hand as Mercedes laughed at them. "We're done cleaning up, now it's your turn." And he proceeded to launch more water in their direction until they were soaked through their clothing. "There, I think that should do it."

"Hey Kurt," Tina said, standing up and opening her arms up wide. Artie stayed behind her, attempting to wring out the water in his shirt, but failing miserably, he ended up giving up and removed the shirt entirely. "How about a hug?"

Kurt's eyes widened as Tina approached him, he sprinted off to hide behind a tree. Tina, knowing she would never be able to catch him switched directions and tackle-hugged a surprised Mercedes.

Artie rolled up to them, and pulled both girls into a hug, Mercedes was just as wet as they were when they were done.

The three friends looked at each other, all sharing identical grins. Artie gave the girls a nod before grabbing the hose and Tina and Mercedes sprinted towards the water guns as the hunt for Kurt began.

Summer was still hot and still sticky, but it wasn't so boring anymore and it probably had a lot to do with the fact that she was no longer alone.

Drenching Kurt Hummel was just a bonus.


End file.
